Miscellaneous Writings Part 71

so, that, notwithstanding my objection, he should do as he deemed best, for I claim no jurisdiction over any stu- dents. He entered the medical school, and several other students with him. My counsel to all of them was in substance the same as the foregoing, and some of these [20]

students have openly acknowledged this.

In answer to a question on the following subject, I will state that I preached four years, and built up the church, before I would accept the slightest remuneration.

When the church had sufficient members and means to [25]

pay a salary, and refused to give me up or to receive my gratuitous services, I accepted, for a time, fifteen dollars each Sunday when I preached. I never received more than this; and the contributions, when I preached, doubled that amount. I have accepted no pay from my [30]

church for about three years, and believe that I have put into the church-fund about two thousand dollars of

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my own contributions. I hold receipts for $1,489.50 paid [1]

in, and the balance was never receipted for.

I temporarily organized a secret society known as the P. M., the workings whereof were not "terrible and too shocking to relate." By and with advice of the very [5]

student who brings up the question of this society, it was formed. The P. M. (Private Meeting) Society met only twice. The first subject given out for considera- tion was this: "There is no Animal Magnetism." There was no advice given, no mental work, and there were [10]

no transactions at those meetings which I would hesitate to have known. On the contrary, our deliberations were, as usual, Christian, and like my public instruction.

The second P. M. convened in about one week from the first. The subject given out at that meeting was, in sub- [15]

stance, "G.o.d is All; there is none beside Him." This proved to be our last meeting. I dissolved the society, and we have not met since. If harm could come from the consideration of these two topics, it was because of the misconception of those subjects in the mind that [20]

handled them. An individual state of mind sometimes occasions effects on patients which are not in harmony with Science and the soundness of the argument used.

Hence it prevents the normal action, and the benefit that would otherwise accrue. [25]

I issue no arguments, and cause none to be used in mental practice, which consign people to suffering. On the contrary, I cannot serve two masters; therefore I teach the use of such arguments only as promote health and spiritual growth. My life, consecrated to humanity [30]

through nameless suffering and sacrifice, furnishes its own proof of my practice.

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I have sometimes called on students to test their ability [1]

and meet the mental malpractice, so as to lift the burdens imposed by students.

The fact is, that for want of time, and for the purpose of blessing even my enemies, I neglect myself. I never [5]

have practised by arguments which, perverted, are the weapons of the silent mental malpractice. I have no skill in occultism; and I could not if I would, and would not if I could, harm any one through the mental method of Mind-healing, or in any manner. [10]

The late much-ado-about-nothing arose solely from mental malicious practice, and the audible falsehood designed to stir up strife between brethren, for the purpose of placing Christian Science in the hands of aspirants for place and power. These repeated attempts of mad [15]

ambition may r.e.t.a.r.d our Cause, but they never can place it in the wrong hands and hold it there, nor benefit mankind by such endeavors.

Fallibility Of Human Concepts

Evil counterfeits good: it says, "I am Truth," though [20]

it is a lie; it says, "I am Love,"-but Love is spirit- ual, and sensuous love is material, wherefore it is hate instead of Love; for the five senses give to mortals pain, sickness, sin, and death,-pleasure that is false, life that leads unto death, joy that becomes sorrow. Love that is [25]

not the procurator of happiness, declares itself the anti- pode of Love; and Love divine punishes the joys of this false sense of love, chastens its affection, purifies it, and turns it into the opposite channels.

Material life is the antipode of spiritual life; it mocks [30]

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the bliss of spiritual being; it is bereft of permanence and [1]

peace.

When human sense is quickened to behold aright the error,-the error of regarding Life, Truth, Love as material and not spiritual, or as both material and spirit- [5]

ual,-it is able for the first time to discern the Science of good. But it must first see the error of its present erroneous course, to be able to behold the facts of Truth outside of the error; and, _vice versa_, when it discovers the truth, this uncovers the error and quickens the true [10]

consciousness of G.o.d, good. May the human shadows of thought lengthen as they approach the light, until they are lost in light and no night is there!

In Science, sickness is healed upon the same Principle and by the same rule that sin is healed. To know the [15]

supposed bodily belief of the patient and what has claimed to produce it, enables the pract.i.tioner to act more under- standingly in destroying this belief. Thus it is in heal- ing the moral sickness; the malicious mental operation must be understood in order to enable one to destroy [20]

it and its effects. There is not sufficient spiritual power in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful.

Through the divine energies alone one must either get out of himself and into G.o.d so far that his consciousness is the reflection of the divine, or he must, through argu- [25]

ment and the human consciousness of both evil and good, overcome evil.

The only difference between the healing of sin and the healing of sickness is, that sin must be _un_covered before it can be destroyed, and the moral sense be aroused to [30]

reject the sense of error; while sickness must be cov- ered with the veil of harmony, and the consciousness be

[Page 353.]

allowed to rejoice in the sense that it has nothing to mourn [1]

over, but something to forget.

Human concepts run in extremes; they are like the action of sickness, which is either an excess of action or not action enough; they are fallible; they are neither [5]

standards nor models.

If one asks me, Is my concept of you right? I reply, The human concept is always imperfect; relinquish your human concept of me, or of any one, and find the divine, and you have gained the right one-and never until then. People [10]

give me too much attention of the misguided, fallible sort, and this misrepresents one through malice or ignorance.

My brother was a manufacturer; and one day a work- man in his mills, a practical joker, set a man who applied for work, in the overseer's absence, to pour a bucket of [15]

water every ten minutes on the regulator. When my brother returned and saw it, he said to the jester, "You must pay that man." Some people try to tend folks, as if they should steer the regulator of mankind. G.o.d makes _us_ pay for tending the action that He adjusts. [20]

The regulator is governed by the principle that makes the machinery work rightly; and because it _is_ thus gov- erned, the folly of tending it is no mere jest. The divine Principle carries on His harmony.

Now turn from the metaphor of the mill to the Mother's [25]

four thousand children, most of whom, at about three years of scientific age, set up housekeeping alone. Certain students, being too much interested in themselves to think of helping others, go their way. They do not love Mother, but pretend to; they constantly go to her for help, interrupt [30]

the home-harmony, criticise and disobey her; then "return to their vomit,"-world wors.h.i.+p, pleasure seeking, and

[Page 354.]

sense indulgence,-meantime declaring they "never dis- [1]

obey Mother"! It exceeds my conception of human nature. Sin in its very nature is marvellous! Who but a moral idiot, sanguine of success in sin, can steal, and lie and lie, and lead the innocent to doom? History needs it, [5]

and it has the grandeur of the loyal, self-forgetful, faith- ful Christian Scientists to overbalance this foul stuff.

When the Mother's love can no longer promote peace in the family, wisdom is not "justified of her children."

When depraved reason is preferred to revelation, error [10]

to Truth, and evil to good, and sense seams sounder than Soul, the children are tending the regulator; they are indeed losing the knowledge of the divine Principle and rules of Christian Science, whose fruits prove the nature of their source. A little more grace, a motive made pure, [15]

a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the move- ment of body and soul in accord with G.o.d.

Instead of relying on the Principle of all that really [20]

exists,-to govern His own creation,-self-conceit, igno- rance, and pride would regulate G.o.d's action. Expe- rience shows that humility is the first step in Christian Science, wherein all is controlled, not by man or laws material, but by wisdom, Truth, and Love. [25]